Interview to David Goldklang and interesting news about his Vända deck campaign
Some days ago I wrote a post about the Kickstarter project made by David Goldklang: The Vända deck.
The campaign has been successfully developed and it has now surpassed 80% of funding. David has also surprised all of us with not only new rewards, but also a new deck: the Gold Vända deck, included in the same campaign.
I have asked some questions to the designer, David Goldklang, about everything related to this new phase of the project.
Let’s enjoy the interview and know better him and Vända decks.
- Max – Hello David, thanks for answering some questions for Max Playing Cards’ readers
- David Goldklang – My pleasure — I’m so excited to see such interest in a project that I’ve designed.
- Max – Tell me a little bit about you and how did you begin designing playing cards.
- David – I’m a graphic designer and I’ve been around playing cards my whole life. A few months ago I had some initial ideas for designing a completely innovative playing card deck concept and since then that rough concept has developed into the Vända decks.
- Max – Which are your interests on cards beyond your job as a designer (collector, magician, manipulator, player, …)?
- David – I’ve always been very interested in cards, games, and puzzles and I’ve played quite a bit of poker. My brother (Jordan Gold) is a professional magician so there have always been dozens of card decks just sitting around the house when I was growing up. I was also a fan of Magic: the Gathering back in high school and spent countless hours playing that game with friends.
- Max – Well, first question about Vända decks. What’s the meaning of Vända?
- David – The name Vända comes from the Swedish term meaning ‘turn/reverse/twist’ which is incredibly apt because it describes some of the ‘color change’ effects that are used by magicians as well as the deck’s complete rotational symmetry – a feature that is entirely unique to the Vända deck. It also inspired me to design an ambigrammatic (rotationally-symmetrical) logo.
- Max – Vända deck has a very original design. Where did you get the inspiration?
- David – Initially I wanted to create a design that addressed each element of a traditional card deck. My goal was to simplify the design and make it clean and modern. I wanted to introduce more consistency throughout the deck than appears in any other card deck on the market. But the biggest goal was to try to achieve something that a card deck design is inherently intended to do but has never been successfully accomplished which is to have complete rotational symmetry. It is clear that card designs are intended to look the same upside-down as right-side-up as you can see in the traditional court cards – when you rotate them 180 degrees, they look the same. However, this symmetry fails in the odd-numbered spot cards (ace, 3, 5, 7, and 9) where the center pip is always pointing in one direction. I solved this dilemma by designing custom center pip symbols that are rotationally symmetrical, a feature that’s entirely unique to the Vända decks. There’s a lot of thought and mathematical ingenuity behind my design that I hope most people are able to appreciate.
- Max – What are your thoughts on the KickStarter campaign? Has it met your expectations? What do you think about Kickstarter as a deck launching platform?
- David – Kickstarter is a fantastic platform for any project. It enables creative people to pursue ideas that they might not otherwise be able to by allowing them to raise funding in advance of producing something. Since this is my first card deck project on Kickstarter, it’s very much a learning process for me. I now have a much clearer idea of what works and what doesn’t and I think I will be able to construct my next project to be even more successful. So far I am very pleased with the results of this project and I hope it continues well beyond the funding goal so that I can start focusing on my next deck design.
- Max – What’s your opinion about the increasing number of designers dedicated to create real playing cards decks. Do you think designing decks is becoming a fashion style?
- David – It does seem like designing card decks is rapidly becoming more popular. There are many talented designers out there who have created some amazing artwork. I think it’s great because it will help to broaden the market as more people become aware of all these great card decks.
- Max – Now, tell me something about the new pledging levels and rewards. I am sure this will be attractive to new backers but, “old backers” will change to the new levels too?
- David – I introduced the ‘Golden Edition’ as an extra incentive for backers to pledge towards my project. The plan was to increase the general interest by offering a very contrasting design to appeal to a wider audience and also give collectors another exciting addition. It seems that many people really love the new design and quite a few have upgraded to the new pledge levels, which has boosted the project funding.
- Max – Please, give me a summary about Vända features: stock, finish, number of decks produced, any limited edition or related items?
- David – Both Vända decks will be printed by the US Playing Card Company on Bicycle stock with ‘magic’ finish. The ‘Crimson Edition’ will be unlimited in availability but the ‘Golden Edition’ will be limited to only 2500 decks.
- Max – Thank you so much again for your kindness. I really wish you the very best on Vända project and, of course, I will talk about it when released.
- David – You’re most welcome and thanks for your support! I really appreciate your help in letting people know about this awesome deck design. I can’t wait to see the final printed products!
Do not hesitate to pledge for these amazing decks and for all the fantastic extras (uncuts, wooden box, tokens, …)